On Wednesday, Ed Hall, the last Pearl Harbor survivor, died peacefully in his sleep at the age of 99. It struck me when I read of his passing and a comment that followed which said “The Greatest Generation fading into the sunset”. What a hauntingly beautiful analogy.

My parents were from that generation as were my aunts and uncles. I remember hearing the stories of uncles who fought in WW2 and Korea and thinking as a child in the 1970s, that was so long ago! But really, it wasn’t. Not for them. I can’t begin to imagine what it was like to have lived through what felt like ancient history to me and the impact Pearl Harbor in particular had on them.

Ed said of Pearl Harbor not long before he passed:

‘It’ll be forgotten, just like the Civil War, or the Spanish American War,’ Hall said. ‘This country better wake up or it’s going to happen again, that nobody will pay attention to the warning signs, like that day of December 7, 1941.’

He’s right, of course. I’m afraid the warning signs are all around us now.

We’re losing them quickly, that generation. One by one, they’ll soon be gone.

I hope Ed is resting in his well deserved peace. ❤